With this in mind, we will begin to reduce the size of our overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year. Of that total, our work toward synergies and strategic alignment on Nokia Devices and Services is expected to account for about 12,500 jobs, comprising both professional and factory workers.

It's clear where the focus of the layoffs lies: Nokia Devices and Services. When Lumia sales couldn't keep up with the rest of the market or Nokia's collapsing Symbian sales, people stated "Nokia is fine!". When Microsoft had to bail out Nokia's devices division to make sure it wouldn't die or be sold off to a competitor, these same people maintained that "Nokia is fine!". Now that Microsoft will layoff half of the Nokia staff it acquired, I'm sure people will still maintain that "Nokia is just fine!".

Sarcasm aside, the fact that 66% of the layoffs will consist of former Nokia staff further confirms what I have been saying all along: Microsoft purchased Nokia's devices division to make sure that Nokia wouldn't go Android (Nokia X!), that Nokia wouldn't sell its troublesome devices division to a competitor, or, worse yet, that Nokia would eventually be forced to shut it down altogether. In short, Microsoft acquired Nokia's devices division to save Windows Phone. The evidence is out there for all to see, and denying this at this point borders on the pathetic.

Anywho, this is terrible news for all the people involved, but with this industry doing relatively well, I hope they will be able to find new jobs easily. There are quite a number of companies who would love to get their hands on Nokia talent, so let's all wish them the best of luck in the weeks and months ahead.

Not unsurprisingly, Nadella specifically announced the end of the Nokia X Android endeavour.

In addition, we plan to shift select Nokia X product designs to become Lumia products running Windows. This builds on our success in the affordable smartphone space and aligns with our focus on Windows Universal Apps.

Microsoft plans to continue selling and supporting existing Nokia X products, so if you've bought one you'll at least continue to get support. If you were thinking about buying one - I really, really wouldn't.

The desktop market for end users exists primarily because people wanted to do things for which a general purpose computer was poorly suited, but just happened to be the only option.
For the vast majority of people, tablets, phones and even chromebooks are a significantly better option.

The idea of a complicated system which requires regular maintenance may appeal to geeks, but giving such systems to average users has been an unmitigated disaster resulting in years of security problems, organised crime and huge botnets.
Desktop computers will return to the niches where they belong - geeks who know how to use them properly, and business use where the device is managed by an IT department. For everyone else, a device managed by apple or google is much better for them.

When it comes to corporate use, the only thing keeping microsoft there is inertia... They are a poor choice from both financial and technical perspectives, and once the lock-in is broken companies will look to save money by ditching microsoft.

We've seen this rhetoric before. The problem is hundreds of millions of desktops are still being sold every year, and that fact flatlines the idea that the desktop is dead. The peak of the desktop may be in the rear view mirror, but by no means is it in a free-fall decline. There's still plenty of meat on the bone whether you like it or not.

Further, to claim the desktop will become a niche thing is silly. People mistakenly think that because desktops, cell phones, and tablets all share a set of basic functions, that they're interchangeable. Wrong. They're different devices with different areas of strength & weakness. Cell phones and tablets are not game-changers that obsoleted the desktop, or anything else at this point. They're simply additions to the array of technology tools people have accessible to them.